Farmington, NM, USA
U.S. Marine Corps
LCPL, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division
08/12/1968, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam
A Purple Heart and Medal of Honor awardee, Kenneth Lee Worley served his country as a part of the US Marine Corps until 1968 when he was killed in Vietnam. He was 20 years old when he died.
Kenneth, born in Farmington, New Mexico in 1948, grew up as an orphan until moving in with his aunt at age sixteen. After attending Hot Spring High School for only two years, Kenneth started working as a truck driver instead of going to school. Although his living conditions were very poor, he kept a positive attitude and after an injury on the job, was taken in by Don and Rose Feyerherm who then became his foster parents. Soon after finding a new family, Worley decided to serve his country and enlist in the United States Marine Corps in 1967.
Kenneth received recruit training with the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. After completing his training in August 1967, he transferred to the Marine Corps Base in Camp Pendleton, California. He then began combat training with Company R, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, and then continued with basic infantry training with the 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, which he completed in October.
After being promoted to private first class on November 1, 1967, he was ordered to serve in Vietnam where he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He served there with three companies, including Company I, Headquarters and Service Company, and Company L, consecutively as a rifleman. In early May, 1968, he was promoted to lance corporal, but sadly, he only served in this position for three and a half more months until being killed in action on August 12, 1968.
Kenneth Lee Worley saved the lives of five fellow Marines by sacrificing his own life there in Vietnam that day, which is why he received a Medal of Honor. He is now buried in Westminster Memorial Park, Westminster, California. Although Worley only lived a short twenty years, he will always be remembered as the courageous, strong, and caring soldier that he was.
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